Are you feeling overwhelmed with life? Does it seem as though you just have too much to do and not quite enough time on your hands? Or maybe you’re feeling overwhelmed because you just have too many choices to make. Overwhelm is very much a state of emotional paralysis when as an adult with ADHD is unable to handle or cope with current situation at hand. In which this experiencer fogs up your ADHD brain and prevents you from seeing things clear. However, thing doesn’t have to be this way for you. below are my six steps I have personally used when I felt overwhelmed as an adult with ADHD.
Recognize When You Are Feeling Overwhelmed – The first and most important step is to notice and acknowledge the moment when you start feeling overwhelm. Overwhelm is something that can creep up on us very slowly and then hits us like a firecracker. Everyone is different but for me, it often starts in a very subtle way by making me feel a little rushed. Then it pushes me out of my comfort zone and then eventually I lost control. What is more that I was no longer clear about what I needed to get done, of course I started complaining and blaming everyone and everything but myself, so recognizing the feeling before you become overwhelmed is very helpful.
Remove Yourself From The Situation– Now that you recognized the feeling of overwhelm, it is time to take a deep mindful breath, and complete yourself from the situation. Yes, I mean walk away from the situation. The reason being you can’t continue what you are currently working on when you are feeling this way. Once you walk away from the situation, you will have the space to think things through more clearly and your first thoughts must be directed at what exactly triggered your feelings of overwhelm. When you identify this trigger, it is the first step taking control back of your life.
Separate Yourself Emotionally– When you are experiencing overwhelm from a situation that you can’t handle; it is due to it is the way you are viewing the situation. Therefore, you will never find a solution to your problem if you are invested within that problem or situation. You must separate your emotions from this experience and give yourself time to think it through. To be more specific you must decide to either change your thoughts of the situation, change it or remove yourself so you can learn how to cope with it.
Take Personal Inventory- Let’s say that you decided to challenge yourself to try and work through the situation that makes you feel overwhelmed. Well in that case it is time for you to take a personal inventory. You maybe asking yourself, what is a personal inventory. A personal inventory is an acknowledgement of your own personal strengths, knowledge, skills, tools and the support you must help you through this situation. With all these things you no longer need to feel overwhelmed with life or any situation. You just need to figure out how you can make use of these resources to help you work through in an optimal way.
Thinking Things Through Rationally- Now that you have taken your personal inventory, you should now understand where your strengths lie and therefore you should feel more capable of working through your feelings of overwhelm in a situation. Take a quick minute on how you can utilize your time, skills, tools and resources you must try to make things less overwhelming for you and ask yourself how you can work through these more effectively and rationally.
You Can Take Charge– No matter what the solutions you come up with to assist you in overcoming your overwhelm, it is take to full responsibility and take charge. Yes of course there are going to be things and aspects that you won’t be able to control. However, don’t let these things distract you from everything else you can do right now. With this in mind, focus on what can be controlled and work through these steps one at a time. Even if you can’t do it all, you can start somewhere. Start small and slowly build momentum.